Law Commons^™

Introduction To The Special Feature Practicing Panarchy: Assessing Legal Flexibility, Ecological Resilience, And Adaptive Governance In Regional Water Systems Experiencing Rapid Environmental Change, Barbara Cosens

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This special feature presents articles on the cross-scale interactions among law, ecosystem dynamics, and governance to address the adaptive capacity of six watersheds in the United States as they respond to rapid environmental change. We build on work that assesses resilience and transformation in riverine and wetland social-ecological systems across the United States at a variety of scales, levels of development, and degrees of degradation, focusing specifically on the Anacostia River, Central Platte River, Klamath River, Columbia River, Middle Rio Grand River, and the Everglades wetlands. All of these cases involve complex institutional systems, histories involving ecological and social regime ...

The Flipside Of Michigan V. Epa: Are Cumulative Impacts Centrally Relevant?, Sanne H. Knudsen

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This Article explores the flipside of Michigan--where the Court's logic can just as well support agencies in their public health and environmental protection efforts. In particular, taking Michigan as a blueprint, this Article argues that cumulative impacts are centrally relevant to environmental regulation and--like cost--deserve a systemic and meaningful role in agency decisionmaking, including in the threshold decision of when to regulate.

In doing so, this Article serves as a counterbalance to the weight of cost benefit rhetoric that would reduce environmental law off to a line item in a strained budget. In support of that thesis, this ...

Indigenous Rights To Water & Environmental Protection, Robert T. Anderson

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This article examines the rights of Indian nations in the United States to adequate water supplies and environmental protection for their land and associated resources. Part I of this article provides a brief background on the history of federal-tribal relations and the source and scope of federal obligations to protect tribal resources. Part II reviews the source and nature of the federal government’s moral and legal obligations to Indian tribes, which are generally referred to as the trust responsibility. Indian reserved water rights and the difficulty tribes experience in protecting habitat needed for healthy treaty resources is discussed in ...

Taking The Public Out Of Public Lands: Shifts In Coal-Extraction Policies In The Trump Administration, Jessica Owley

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No abstract provided.

Climate Change Challenges For Land Conservation: Rethinking Conservation Easements, Strategies, And Tools, Jessica Owley, Federico Cheever, Adena R. Rissman, M. Rebecca Shaw, Barton H. Thompson Jr., W. William Weeks

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No abstract provided.

Pragmatism, Pragtivism, And Private Environmental Governance, Joshua Galperin

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This essay is an edited version of a talk presented at the 2017 J.B. & Maurice C. Shapiro Environmental Law Symposium on Private Environmental Governance at the George Washington University. It is adapted from a longer article entitled Trust Me, I’m A Pragmatist: A Partially Pragmatic Critique of Pragmatic Activism, in 42 Colum. J. Envtl. L. 425 (2017).

Feeding The Eco-Consumer, Alexia Brunet Marks

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There is a lot of talk about making our food system more “sustainable,” and eco-consumers — those who consider environmental sustainability as an important purchasing priority — are making themselves heard. This growing consumer segment is rapidly gaining national attention for moving more sustainable products to the market, and for its willingness to pay more for these options. However, while economists normally predict that higher prices lead profit-minded suppliers to enter a market to meet a new and growing demand, this transition is not occurring at the pace one would expect.

This Article argues that land tenure status — whether a farmer rents ...

Board Rooms And Jail Cells- Assessing Ngo Approaches To Private Environmental Governance, Joshua Galperin

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Staff of the Nature Conservancy often find themselves in corporate board rooms. Staff of Greenpeace often find themselves in jail cells. The Nature Conservancy (TNC) prides itself on its non-confrontational, collaborative deal making, partnering closely with corporations like chemical giant Dow and agricultural lightning rod Monsanto. Both Dow and Monsanto, in fact, are members of TNC’s Business Council along with the likes of BP, Shell, and Cargill. Greenpeace, on the other hand, prides itself on direct action, civil disobedience, and non-violent confrontation. Greenpeace has launched combative operations against Dow, Monsanto, and other TNC collaborators. While business partners praise TNC ...